I typically only go to the RAW image if I really need the extra color depth that's there. This happens sometimes when I've got a challenging lighting situation in the photo, like in this post. Even when I've got the exposure about as good as I can get it, when I process the image, I inevitably end up with a strong chromatic aberration as seen in this photo (I doubled the size of this image to highlight the problem, it's usually not this bad):
To take care of this, I've found that the color replacement brush in Photoshop Elements is a great tool. Set the brush size to just over the width of the distortion band. Then, Alt+Click on the plumage color just inside the distortion, to select the replacement color. Then, start painting the blue (or red) away. Alt+Click on the nearest good color several times as you go down to ensure the colors are consistent. Once you try it a couple of times, you'll get the hang of it. Here's the result:
Any questions?